President’s Message
Dear Members,
As Convocation season wraps up, I’ve been reflecting on honorary degree recipient Dr. Judy Rebick’s convocation address wherein she discussed the importance of hope, valuing working with others, supporting each other, and building solidarity. In the wake of recent budget cuts here at Trent, we see the post-secondary sector is at a crucial moment and that many of the issues we are dealing with locally stem from broader structural issues.
I was recently invited to participate on a panel here in Peterborough with MPP Peggy Sattler (London West, NDP) regarding the state of post-secondary education. During that panel, the fact that Ontario (even with the newly announced funding) ranks last in the country for per-FTE funding of universities was emphasized. According to research by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA), sixty-nine percent of the new funding announced by the province will be coming from OSAP cuts (cuts that cited unsustainable costs that have been shown to be due to private career college students rather than those at public universities). These cuts run the risk of lower enrollments which, as we know locally, have a compounding effect on operating budgets. As you’ll read from our Librarian members, cuts to any union at Trent cascade into affecting everyone. Over the next year as we prepare for the next budget round at Trent, we need to continue to advocate for increased funding so that the sector can provide the robust education students will need to navigate increasingly unpredictable times.
The last month saw your Executive team begin its term. We held a retreat that was productive and highlighted some initiatives for the coming year. We emphasized the importance of increased communication with members, both to hear your concerns and to inform you of work that is being done. To that end, we will be working to include more updates from caucus and committee groups in newsletters, increasing the number of membership meeting opportunities (formally or informally), and looking at ways to hone our position statements outside of the bargaining cycle.
We will also be reviving the Collegial Governance Committee under the leadership of Karleen Pendleton Jiménez and Robin Quantick, undertaking an internal TUFA governance review and consultation (which will address some of the issues raised by the librarians below), and starting an Organizing and Engagement subcommittee of the Executive led by Karleen Pendleton Jiménez and Mary Jean Hande.
This is on top of the regular commitment to supporting our affiliates, OCUFA and the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) as well as our regular advocacy done through the Joint Committee on the Administration of the Agreement where we work through local issues. As always, please feel free to bring concerns to the attention of the TUFA Office or any member of your Executive team.
In solidarity,
Dwayne Collins
Committee & Caucus Updates
To our TUFA colleagues,
We are writing to share information about the impact of recent budget decisions on Trent University Library & Archives, and to begin a conversation we hope will continue in the weeks and months ahead.
As TUFA members, librarians are part of the same community as our faculty colleagues. We share a collective agreement, a union, and a commitment to Trent’s academic mission. It is in that spirit that we are writing now, because we believe many of our fellow TUFA members may not have a full picture of what the Library & Archives are facing.
For fiscal year 2026-27, the Library & Archives budget has been cut by 12.3%. This follows a 4.9% budget cut last year (2025-26), which resulted in the loss of two OPSEU positions and one exempt position. This year’s cuts go significantly further, affecting staffing, operations, and the services that faculty and students rely on every day.
In total, five positions are being eliminated, including three permanent OPSEU positions effective immediately, and one contract position at the end of August. The fifth position is a TUFA LTA librarian position, further reducing our TUFA complement. These losses touch every area of library service including staffing of the Library Service desks at both campuses, interlibrary loan services, cataloguing of new library materials, discovery and access of electronic resources, student engagement and outreach, and research support. The loss of these five colleagues will mean reduced service levels, shorter building hours, and longer turnaround times for our faculty colleagues, students, and researchers. Beyond the impacts to our existing services, we are also unable to move forward with new services that were in development.
The loss of the LTA position reduces the number of liaison librarians from four to three (two based in Peterborough and one based in Durham). Losing this position means that supported departments will be redistributed among the remaining three, and every instructor who relies on a liaison librarian for research consultations, course-integrated instruction, or collection support should expect that this work will become harder to access.
As we settle into this new reality, we anticipate that further assessment will be necessary. Some services that the Library & Archives currently provide are no longer sustainable at their current level. We will increasingly face difficult decisions about what we can and cannot continue to offer. And there will be times when we will have to say no.
These cuts are happening against a baseline that was already cause for concern. Trent is not a well-resourced library system being asked to trim; it is an underfunded one being asked to cut further. Our librarian and staff numbers have not kept pace with Trent’s substantial growth in student enrolment, academic programs, and library services over the last decade. According to the 2026 Maclean’s university rankings, Trent ranks 14th out of 20 primarily undergraduate universities in library expenses as a proportion of the university budget (3.2%), and 17th out of 20 in the proportion of the library budget allocated to acquisitions (32.2%).
The picture is equally stark when it comes to librarian staffing levels. In a recent CAUT discussion, 27 Canadian universities shared their librarian-to-student ratios. Trent’s ratio of 1 librarian for every 1,475 students was the second highest of all 27 institutions. This means that before these cuts, Trent’s librarians were already among the most stretched in the country. The loss of another liaison librarian position will push that ratio higher still. Cuts of this magnitude, applied to a library that is already underfunded and understaffed relative to its peers, do not represent a belt-tightening. They represent a structural degradation of library and archival services at Trent.
This context makes the administration’s approach to the current budget cycle even more concerning. In a meeting with librarians prior to the budget announcement, the Provost was candid: within academic budgets, the administration’s priority was to protect the integrity of program offerings and enrolment. The Provost acknowledged directly that this meant there would be more reductions to the Library & Archives than elsewhere. We understand why protecting instructional capacity matters, and we know it has been a priority for TUFA’s budget advocacy as well. But when the library is treated as the place where cuts land so that instructional budgets don’t have to absorb them, students and faculty across every program ultimately feel the effects. The Library & Archives are not separate from the instructional mission — we are a core part of it.
We also want to raise something that lies beneath this moment. As a small constituency of a union whose membership is predominantly instructional faculty, librarians can easily be overlooked. This is not through any failure of intention, but simply because our numbers are small and our working context is quite different. Two structural gaps compound this. Within the university, the library has no elected departmental chair to raise concerns with administration or advocate within governance structures, as most other academic units do. Within TUFA, there is no dedicated member-at-large seat on the executive for librarians (unlike the existing roles for LTA and Durham members) to ensure our perspective is consistently represented where union priorities are set. Addressing both gaps is something we hope to work on with TUFA in the months ahead.
We are not asking for sympathy. We are asking for awareness, and for solidarity. In the coming months, librarians will be engaging more actively with TUFA on questions of representation and advocacy, including the question of a departmental chair. We hope our faculty colleagues will be receptive to those conversations. The Library & Archives exists to support every student, every instructor, every researcher, and every program at Trent. Cuts to the library are not contained; they ripple outward throughout the university. The strength of our union comes from its members standing together, and we are asking you to stand with us.
Sincerely,
The TUFA Librarian Caucus
Advocacy
TUFA Continues Advocacy for Ontario’s Post-Secondary Sector
As part of TUFA’s ongoing advocacy efforts on behalf of faculty, librarians, and students, TUFA President and librarian, Dwayne Collins, participated in a post-secondary education town hall in Peterborough on May 29 alongside Ontario NDP Shadow Minister for Colleges and Universities Peggy Sattler, students, labour leaders, and community stakeholders.
The event provided an opportunity to discuss the challenges facing Ontario’s post-secondary sector, including chronic underfunding, staffing reductions, increasing reliance on precarious employment, and concerns about privatization.
During the discussion, Collins highlighted the impacts of funding cuts at Trent University and emphasized that the pressures facing Trent are part of a broader provincial trend affecting institutions across Ontario. His participation, and the resulting media coverage, helped ensure that the experiences and concerns of TUFA members were represented in an important public conversation about the future of post-secondary education.
Click here to read more.
Our Members in the News
Trent Professor Awarded Prestigious Polar Medal
Congratulations to Dr. P. Whitney Lackenbauer, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Study of the Canadian North and professor in Trent’s School for the Study of Canada, on receiving the Polar Medal from Her Excellency Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada. One of only two recipients honoured in 2026, Dr. Lackenbauer was recognized for his outstanding contributions to Arctic research, governance, sovereignty, and security. His work, conducted in collaboration with Northern communities and through his long-standing involvement with the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group, has helped advance Canada’s understanding of the Arctic and informed national policy at a critical time for the region.
Read the full story here.
TUFA Executive Member Receives National Teaching Honours
Congratulations to Dr. Wesley Burr, associate professor and chair of Mathematics & Statistics at Trent University and a member of the TUFA Executive Committee, on receiving two prestigious national awards for teaching excellence. Dr. Burr has been awarded the 2026 Early Career Educator Award from the Statistics Society of Canada and the 2026 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Canadian Mathematical Society in recognition of his outstanding contributions to student learning. Since joining Trent in 2016, Dr. Burr has earned a reputation for making mathematics and statistics more accessible and engaging, helping students build confidence while fostering curiosity and critical thinking. These national honours recognize his exceptional dedication to teaching and student success.
Read the full story here.
Community
50/50 Raffle Tickets for a Cause
The Community Counselling and Resource Centre of Peterborough (CCRC) is holding a raffle to celebrate their 70th anniversary and raise funds to help support the community. The CCRC is a non-profit organization that provides counselling and housing supports.
You can support the CCRC by buying a raffle ticket online.
Volunteer with the United Way
The United Way Day of Caring is June 26th. Day of Caring is an annual event to support the United Way of Peterborough and District. They are calling for volunteers to take part in hands-on projects for local organizations to complete tasks like construction, gardening and cleaning.
Come together and support the community. Click here to get involved.
CAUT
CAUT Bulletin – Vol. 73, No. 2
This special 75th anniversary issue of the CAUT Bulletin reflects on the history and evolution of academic staff unionism in Canada, alongside the ongoing challenges facing post-secondary education.
Highlights include:
It takes a union village – Examining the rise of academic staff unionization, from early resistance to its near-universal presence today, and the need for renewed solidarity in the face of growing precarity and sectoral change.
A brief history of CAUT – A retrospective outlining key milestones in advancing academic freedom, collective bargaining, and national advocacy over the past 75 years.
The changing academic workforce – Analysis of increasing contract work, reduced public funding, and the growing pressures reshaping academic labour in Canada.
Book review: Knowledge Under Siege – A look at the future of universities in a time of political and economic pressure.
Interview with David Edwards – Insights from an international education leader on global challenges in higher education.
News updates from across the sector – Coverage of key developments affecting academic staff and post-secondary institutions nationwide.
Click here to read the full bulletin.